1. Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates to connectorized multi-fiber, fiber optic cable preparations and manufacture, and related cables, assemblies, and systems. The connectorized multi-fiber, fiber optic cables, assemblies, and systems may be used as medium for data transfer between data processing units, including in high performance computing systems, as an example.
2. Technical Background
The increasing trend towards high performance computing (HPC) is driving the need for increased bandwidth of data communications between electrical data processing units. For example, communication rates between electrical data processing units may require data transfer rates of Gigabits per second (Gps) or even tens (10s) of Gps. In this regard, optical fibers are increasingly being used in lieu of copper wires as a communication medium between these electrical data processing units for high data rate communications. One or more optical fibers are packaged in a cable to provide a fiber optic cable for communicatively connecting electrical data processing units. Optical fiber is capable of transmitting an extremely large amount of bandwidth compared to a copper conductor with less loss and noise. An optical fiber is also lighter and smaller compared to a copper conductor having the same bandwidth capacity.
An example of a connectorized fiber optic cable arrangement 10 that may be used to interconnect electrical data processing units is illustrated in FIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the connectorized fiber optic cable arrangement 10 includes three fiber optic cables 12, 14, and 16. The break lines illustrated in FIG. 1 in the fiber optic cables 12, 14, and 16 signify that these fiber optic cables 12, 14, and 16 can be of any length desired. This fiber optic cable arrangement 10 may be used to connect four (4) electrical data processing units as an example. As an example, each fiber optic cable 12, 14, 16 may include twelve (12) optical fibers. Each fiber optic cable 12, 14, 16 is connectorized on each end with a fiber optic connector A, B, B′, C, C′, D. The fiber optic connectors A, B, B′, C, C′, D allow each fiber optic cable 12, 14, 16 to be connected to an electrical data processing unit. In this example, each fiber optic connector A, B, B′, C, C′, D is a twelve-fiber multi-fiber termination push-on (MTP) connector to provide bandwidth in the capacity of twelve (12) optical fibers.
With continuing reference to FIG. 1, the fiber optic cable 12 is comprised of two fiber optic connectors A, B on each end. The fiber optic connector A may be connected to a first electrical data processing unit (not shown). The fiber optic connector B may be connected to a second electrical data processing unit to connect the first electrical data processing unit to the second electrical data processing unit via optical fiber in the fiber optic cable 12. Similarly, the fiber optic cable 14 is comprised of two fiber optic connectors B′ and C, where the fiber optic connector B′ can be connected to the same (second) electrical data processing unit as the fiber optic connector B. Similarly, the fiber optic cable 16 is comprised of two fiber optic connectors C′ and D, where the fiber optic connector C′ can be connected to the same (second) electrical data processing unit as the fiber optic connector C. The fiber optic connector D can be connected to yet another electrical data processing system to carry optical signals to and from the fiber optic connector C′.
The fiber optic cable arrangement 10 in FIG. 1 provides twelve (12) optical fibers for data communications. But, HPC may require much greater bandwidth. Thus, higher optical fiber densities may need to be provided in a fiber optic cable arrangement. To support this need, optical fibers can be provided in smaller sizes to allow for more optical fibers to be disposed in a fiber optic cable. For example, if a fifty (50) micrometer (μm) diameter optical fiber is coated up to a seventy-five (75) μm diameter and packaged into a conventional 2.0 millimeter (mm) outer diameter (OD) fiber optic cable, two hundred (200) or more optical fibers are possible to be packaged in the 2.0 mm OD fiber optic cable as an example.
The same connectorized fiber optic cable arrangement 10 provided in FIG. 1 could also be employed with higher optical fiber count fiber optic cable, but with challenges. For example, maintaining the same ordering of the optical fibers is a challenge. Ordering is the particular assignment of an optical fiber to a particular location or channel in a connector so that fiber optic cables can be interchangeably used and maintain the same fiber-to-fiber connections. To maintain ordering, the fiber optic connectors A, B, B′, C, C′, D could be designed to maintain a determined ordering of each optical fiber in the fiber optic cables 12, 14, 16. However, this may not be possible with standard fiber optic connector types for higher fiber counts unless the optical fiber count is split among multiple fiber optic cables from point-to-point (e.g., A to B, B to C, C to D). For example, if a two-hundred (200) optical fiber count is desired, and the available fiber optic connectors only support a forty-eight (48) optical fiber count maximum, five (5) fiber optic cables would be required between each point-to-point adding both complexity, space issues, and cost.